Caracol Radio reported that Carmen Lucía Rodríguez Díaz, a civil judge in Bogotá, the country’s capital, “defended the viability of marriage for gay couples” in a five page ruling she wrote after a couple identified as Diego and Juan petitioned her to legally recognize their relationship.

The two men are expected to tie the knot in a civil marriage ceremony on July 24. Same-sex couples in Colombia on June 20 began to seek legal recognition of their relationships. The South American country’s Constitutional Court in 2011 ruled gays and lesbians could legally register their relationships within two years if the country’s lawmakers failed to extend to them the same benefits heterosexuals receive through marriage.